Marching towards my Goals!

Considering it is the last day of March we better have a look at my progress with my 2017 goals.  Let's check these out. 

This Year, 2017, I will…

Quit… eating because I’m bored, sad, angry, frustrated or confused.

I get a giant tick for this month!   I am much more in tune with my feelings and when I go anywhere near the kitchen (or the cookie jar) I check myself for whether I'm truly hungry or just bored, sad, angry etc.... If I'm not hungry, I label the emotion and decide on an activity to help me feel better instead of eating.

Eat…   three balanced meals and two snacks at least 6 days a week. 

I am doing this 3 - 4 times a week, but certainly not 6 days! We have been having difficulty organising our grocery shopping (in between life) and that makes it hard to stick with the eating plan all the time. I need to come up with a better strategy for this one. 

Start… exercising for 30 minutes, at least 4 times a week.

UUMMM... not happening.  Need to work on this. Motivation has been difficult as I returned to work and adjusted to changing routines.  The heat and humidity have been hard to handle and I got a cold!  Excuses, Excuses. 

Visit… family and/or friends once a month.

This month I went to visit an old family friend in hospital.  I also went out for coffee with a school friend. I also had a lovely Saturday earlier this month when I visited my Uncle and Aunty on the coast. My grandparents arrived for a visit while I was there and another Aunty and Uncle came too.  That means I'm ahead of schedule with the visiting and that's good because I might need to take a month off later this year. 

Accept… that I cannot fix everything. 

This one might be going a little too well.  There are days when I have accepted my limitations so well that I'm rather resigned and unmotivated.  Not quite the point.  At work, it can be very hard to accept the problems and concerns that we face and accepting that I can't fix it all can be hard too.  I am working on it. 

See…    Melbourne in real life.

Since my "capital idea" earlier this month, the plan has changed a little.  I'm seeing Adelaide next week. Stay tuned for the details of my adventure. 

Learn… at least 12 scripture passages by heart. 

Let's See: Scripture Verses learned so far

Psalm 23

Psalm 32:7 (still working on learning Psalm 32:8)

Colossians 1:11

Therefore, I'm on track!

Give… to Christian Missions overseas and in Australia (12 times or once a month).

I donated to high school chaplaincy this week.  I'm looking into some Salvation Army orphanages and schools that I would like to support on a regular basis.  I'm also participating in TSA's Self Denial Appeal which will be mission contribution for April. 

Be…   Quiet

I'm doing well. I'm enjoying this.  Enough said.

Grow… spiritually by reading my Bible 5-7 times a week and attending church at least 3 times each month.

My strategy of marking the calendar has worked well to help me track this.  I'm not quite up to 5 times a week.   I average 4.  That is a huge improvement from last year when it was more like once a week.  I am on track with 3 times a month for going to church.  I'm really loving attending church again.  I missed it.

I am about to finish the devotional book that I am currently using.  I haven't quite decided which one I will use next. 

Invest… in reaching these goals.

Obviously I'm doing this.. There might be a few more things I can do to invest in these better.  Something to think about. 

Today, I have a cold...

Yesterday, I woke up with a sore throat.  Today, I feel kind of horrid.  Therefore, I decided to use a writing prompt for today's blog post.  Here it is.....

I won't stand for this another moment!  I will lay down and take a nap instead!

That's that then.  See you next week.

Green for Good Luck?!

I hope you are all having a lovely Friday and a lovely St Pat's Day.  I, for one, have wonderful memories of St Patrick's Day... and not one of them involves alcohol!  Fancy that!

Although, you have to wonder if the people who organised these St Pat's Celebrations were blotto when they did it.  I will tell you why.

We basically turned into little green people who dressed in green, ate green food, drank green cordial and played games that involved green things... like.... um, lettuce?!... and then talked about a guy who lived hundreds of years ago. Coincidentally, there is no evidence that I can find (admittedly, I didn't look very hard) that Pat ever wore green or drank a whole lot of lager.  But I digress.

Not much else to say.  Well, if I did have more to say I don't remember any of it. 

A Capital Idea

A few years ago, it must have been years, because I don't remember writing it... I wrote a new bucket list. I found it recently.

One of the items on the list included a Capital Idea... I wanted to visit all the capital cities of Australia.  This is one of the reasons that my goals for this year included Seeing Melbourne IRL"  (For the less techlingo savvy of you, IRL means In Real Life).  For several reasons, that are very boring, I was actually thinking about changing my destination for the upcoming trip that I was planning (to Melbourne).

There are lots of lists like this online.. just checkout Pinterest!

Source

I started exploring the idea of Adelaide... visiting the city of Adelaide.  I think it will be the perfect place for the type of holiday I need right now.  The thing is, I need a quiet, peaceful, but still fun, sort of holiday and I think Melbourne might be a bit too much hustle and bustle for the moment.  I will certainly go there, just not in April.  While exploring travel blogs and articles focused on Adelaide (and of course Pinterest), I also thought about Perth.  I can't decide.  I think the weather will be a big deciding factor for me. 

Don't you reckon this screams "perfect holiday for M"

Dusk at Thorngrove Manor in Adelaide

Source

I started a new Pinterest Board this week called "Holiday Dreams"  and I'm pinning like mad.  If you check it out, or if you are a follower, you will see that there are all sorts of pins from travel tips, packing tips, day trip ideas, itineraries, activities for several Aussie cities and even a few international capitals.

So, there it is, my Capital Idea.... I want to visit capital cities- first Australia, then, the world!

I can't wait!

I forgot how much was involved in planning a getaway!  Back to the 'grindstone'. 

Cards... The February Collection

The first half of the year is a busy time for birthdays in our family.  All of my nieces' and nephews' birthdays lie somewhere between the beginning of January and the end of June.  Therefore, I make a lot of birthday cards in the first six months of the year.  My sister's birthday, is in April and two of my grandparents have birthdays in February.  The other adults celebrate their birthdays in the second  half of the year as do many of my friends.  This means that I'm making birthday cards all year round. This year, so far, I have managed to stay well ahead of the birthday card making by starting to make cards at the beginning of the month and trying to stay at least a few weeks ahead.  I had a big card making day a few weeks ago and now I have made all the birthday cards that I will need for February birthdays AND March birthdays.  I still made each card with the specific recipient in mind.  I don't write in the cards until the actual birthday (or a few days before). 

You are probably sick of reading and just want to see the pictures.  I know I am.  Here goes. 

I created this one for my niece who is turning 5 this weekend and she loves bubbles!  This was created with one long stamp, I simply changed ink pads to colour it before printing onto the card.  The pink washi tape border was to cover up the fact that the stamp wasn't big enough to fill the whole card!   She also happens to LOVE pink so it all worked out. 

I think this card is puurrfect for a cat lady.  Hence, I made it for Nanny who taught me that every lady is happier when she owns a cat!  As you can see, Shelly was very "helpful" during the making of this card.  Hehehe. Just a side note, Poppy also had a birthday in February, but I already showed you his card because I made it in January. 

This next card was inspired by some cards posted on Make and Takes, click here to see the how to.  I saw these cards on Pinterest and there were other 'cakes made from washi tape' creations on Pinterest too.  Sweet Living included this idea in their 10 fabulous ideas for using Washi tape where they decorated plain white paper then used it to wrap a wedding gift! This card will go to my nephew for his 17th birthday at the end of March. 

Last, but certainly not least, this flower birthday card was created for my niece who turned 11 last week.  The large flowers that were layered to make the middle flower were part of a pre-cut packet I bought.  I made the smaller flowers using a small flower punch.  I layered these too and added a gem in the centre of each.  Of course the corner is just a few strips of co-ordinating washi tape.  Easy!  :) The sentiment was a mix of two "Happy Birthday" stamps.  I tried this after hearing from the BFF that it's cool to mix fonts in your sentiments now.  So, I'm very 'in' and very 'now' and I'm down with it.  Ha, Ha, Ha!

I hope your creative juices have been squeezed out or maybe you are just enjoying the pretty!  Remember you can check out my two Pinterest boards where I pin my creations as well as and lots of cards and other crafts that I see around the place and want to save for inspiration.